ÿThe Justice Department and the FBI have failed to meet deadlines for the delivery of specific documents about FBI activities prior to the official investigation into Russian meddling, reports Fox News citing a "source close to the discussions." 

“The DOJ gave the committee some, but not all, of the outstanding documents, so they are not in compliance,” an Intelligence Committee spokesperson told Fox.

If DOJ records reveal that the FBI was actively working against the Trump campaign prior to events which officially precipitated Operation Crossfire Hurricane - especially during the period in which they engaged informant Stefan Halper to conduct espionage on multiple Trump aides, it will have wide ranging implications on the FBI's version of how the counterintelligence operation began. Without the documents, congressional investigators won't be able to piece together the timeline of events, or whether the FBI followed agency protocols during that period. 

While FBI headquarters authorized the official counterintelligence operation on July 31, 2016 - John Solomon of The Hill reported in June that efforts to spy on and possibly entrap Trump campaign aides began much earlier. 

The bridge to the Russia investigation wasn’t erected in Moscow during the summer of the 2016 election.

It originated earlier, 1,700 miles away in London, where foreign figures contacted Trump campaign advisers and provided the FBI with hearsay allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, bureau documents and interviews of government insiders reveal. These contacts in spring 2016 — some from trusted intelligence sources, others from Hillary Clinton supporters — occurred well before FBI headquarters authorized an official counterintelligence investigation on July 31, 2016. -The Hill

Another red flag from The Hill was noted by retired assistant FBI director for intelligence, Kevin Brock, who supervised an agency update to their longstanding bureau rules governing the use of sources while working under then-director Robert Mueller. These rules prohibit the FBI from directing a human source to perform espionage on an American until a formal investigation has been opened - paperwork and all. 

Brock sees oddities in how the Russia case began. “These types of investigations aren’t normally run by assistant directors and deputy directors at headquarters,” he told me. “All that happens normally in a field office, but that isn’t the case here and so it becomes a red flag. Congress would have legitimate oversight interests in the conditions and timing of the targeting of a confidential human source against a U.S. person.” -The Hill

The records were requested by three House GOP committee chairmen; Trey Gowdy on Oversight, Devin Nunes from Intelligence and Bob Goodlatte on Judiciary - while the Friday deadline was set by a House resolution after a subpoenas and letters issued as far back as August of last year failed to do the trick. 

The source said House staffers -- who reviewed records Thursday at the Justice Department (DOJ) because lawmakers were...